The Gist Healthcare Podcast

Senators work on a bipartisan package to address the country’s growing mental health crisis. The travel nursing industry defends itself after accusations by hospitals of price gouging. Medicare is out with a plan to provide free COVID tests over the counter. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

President Biden revives his cancer moonshot plan to cut the death rate in half over the next 25 years. Anthem is staying the course on its partner not acquire strategy. And reaching the point where covid becomes endemic - is far from the end.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Pfizer and BioNTech are asking the Food and Drug Administration for emergency use authorization of their two-dose covid vaccine for kids under 5-years-old. Michigan health systems Beaumont Health and Spectrum Health are moving forward with their planned merger. Multiple states ask CMS for more flexibility in enforcing the COVID vaccine mandate for healthcare workers.   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The FDA fully approves Moderna’s covid vaccine. South Carolina is the latest state looking to scrap certificate of need laws. And there’s reported tension between the White House and the Secretary of Health. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As the country struggles with a shortage of inpatient behavioral health beds and mental healthcare providers, health systems are increasingly turning to telepsychiatry to meet the need. Geoffrey Boyce, CEO of Array Behavioral Care, a 23-year-old telepsychiatry group, says that health systems are seeking more comprehensive behavioral health solutions across inpatient, virtual and home-based settings, but regulatory barriers are standing in the way of more widespread adoption. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A record 14.5 million people signed up for individual market plans in 2022. Suicide attempts are up but the number of people seeking mental healthcare has remained flat. And STAT News reporting federal provider relief funds were used for covid drugs and vaccines. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Massachusetts General Brigham will need to come up with a plan for how to reduce its high spending. New research sheds light on factors that may lead patients to develop long COVID. Former North Carolina Secretary of Health Dr. Mandy Cohen will join primary care enablement company Aledade. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The American Hospital Association is pleading for government help with staffing shortages. Many health plans still aren’t complying with mental health parity rules. And Uber hires a chief medical officer. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As US hospitals recruit nurses from overseas, the countries they leave behind struggle with shortages. Traditional Medicare beneficiaries are excluded from new at-home covid test coverage. And IBM sells its Watson Health assets to a private equity firm. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dr. Wes Ely, a pulmonology and critical care physician at Vanderbilt University and co-director of the Critical Illness, Brain Dysfunction and Survivorship Center, says while much of the current COVID focus is on acute infection, health systems must prepare to care for the millions of chronically disabled individuals with “long COVID.” Dr. Ely's research focus is on cognitive issues that ICU patients develop during or after their stays, some of which appear similar to long covid. Ely wrote about his efforts to reform intensive care in his newly released book, "Every Deep-Drawn Breath".      Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.